2009 April
Send us your shelf porn!
Welcome to Send Us Your Shelf Porn, where our only concern is figuring out what’s on your bookshelves.
Our special guest this week is blogger Russ Kazmierczak, who was kind enough to send pictures of his self-described “old Man-Cave.” “I live in a slightly smaller place right now,” he writes, “but this collection is still complete and displayed, and all of this stuff is treasured in its own geeky way.”
So, without further ado, let’s take a gander at Russ’ shelves …
- April 15, 2009 @ 09:00 AM by Chris Mautner
Straight for the art | Jeff Smith shares RASL #4 preview
from RASL #4
Some things are well worth the wait. Jeff Smith shares a few pages from the fourth issue of his latest series, RASL. The book is due in shops a week from today.
- April 15, 2009 @ 08:17 AM by JK Parkin
Food or Comics | Money, comics and the economy
Dark Avengers #3
• ICv2.com reports that direct-market sales of periodicals were down 7 percent in March when, for the first time since the site began tracking figures in March 2001, no comic sold more than 100,000 copies. The top comic, Marvel’s Dark Avengers #3, sold an estimated 95,546 copies.
Aided by Watchmen sales, graphic novels rebounded from a February decline to post a 6 percent gain last month. The Alan Moore-Dave Gibbons collection was again the top graphic novel in March, selling an estimated 32,132 in comic shops.
Overall sales of comics and graphic novels dipped 5 percent for the first quarter of 2009 (compared to the first quarter of 2008), which ICv2 suggests isn’t bad for a period described as “the worst retail environment in memory.”
Top 300 Graphic Novels for March 2009
Top 300 Comic Books for March 2009
• Bookstore sales plunged 10.8 percent in February, to $1.02 billion.
• Image Comics has joined Diamond Comic Distributors’ Final Order Cutoff program,which will allow retailers to adjust comic orders up to 20 days before the release date.
The program begins April 20 for titles shipping on May 13.
- April 15, 2009 @ 08:10 AM by Kevin Melrose
The next mayor of (Marvel’s) New York City is …
Amazing Spider-Man #591
Note: This post contains spoilers for Amazing Spider-Man #591.
By this point, Marvel Comics has the recipe down pat for sparking mainstream-media interest: Take a comic-book icon like Spider-Man or Captain America, and add a dose of real-world politics.
It worked for Civil War, and “The Death of Captain America,” and Spider-Man’s encounter with Barack Obama (it really worked with that last one).
The latest mash-up, revealed this morning by A.M. New York several hours before comic shops even opened, occurs in this week’s Amazing Spider-Man #591. (A big spoiler is right there on the tabloid’s cover.)
It seems that Michael Bloomberg is mysteriously absent from the Marvel Universe, and that a figure very familiar to comics fans has just been elected as mayor of New York City.
“What happened to Mayor Bloomberg in the Marvel Universe?” Executive Editor Tom Brevoort rhetorically asks A.M. New York. “I don’t know, crushed by a rock, killed during the Skrull invasion? Could’ve been anything.”
So who’ll be moving into Gracie Mansion? Who can make Spider-Man declare “This is not happening”?
Continue reading to find out.
Again, be warned: There are spoilers below.
- April 15, 2009 @ 07:06 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Alan Moore (by Sean McCabe)
Legal | Joint committees in the Philippines House of Representatives have approved a bill banning pornographic comics. The newspaper article defines hentai as “the Japanese cartoon that depicts children in explicit sexual activity,” so it’s unclear what the language of the legislation is. However, the bill apparently would make the possession of “hentai” punishable by six to 12 years in prison and a fine. [Manila Standard Today]
Publishing | Disney Publishing Worldwide has made a licensing deal with Indian publisher Junior Diamond to release Disney comics in that country in English and Hindi. [Business Standard]
Creators | In an article titled “The Sorcery of Alan Moore,” James Parker considers the influence of the comic-book writer on popular culture, dwelling too much on the film adaptations of his work: “If part of the enterprise of comics writers over the past 30 years has been to reclaim and reinterpret an earlier, apparently exhausted symbolic world, then Moore has been the high priest of this postmodern ritual.” [The Atlantic]
From 100 Bullets #100
Creators | Brian Azzarello talks about the end of his “postmodern noir” series 100 Bullets. To mark the occasion — the final, 100th issue hits stores today — Tucker Stone examines the writer’s other stories, from 1996′s Primer #1 to 1998′s Jonny Double to 2002′s Cage. [The Underwire, The Factual Opinion]
Publishing | Laura Hudson spotlights Sweden’s “young, flourishing comics scene” and moves by Top Shelf Productions to publish some of the creators in North America. [PW Comics Week]
Publishing | Johanna Draper Carlson talks with Archie Comics Managing Editor Mike Pellerito about the “Young Salem” storyline in Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and what will happen to the title afterward. [Comics Worth Reading]
- April 15, 2009 @ 06:05 AM by Kevin Melrose
Straight for the art | Dead@17 Afterbirth preview
from Dead@17: Afterbirth
Over on his blog, Dead@17 creator Josh Howard offers a preview of the first few pages from Dead@17: Afterbirth. Although Howard has done several previous volumes of Dead@17, this will be the first mini-series to be published by Image Comics and not Viper. The mini-series starts in June.
- April 15, 2009 @ 06:04 AM by JK Parkin
Marshall Mathers, Slim Shady and … the Punisher?
Eminem
The latest issue of XXLmag features the return of rapper Eminem, who poses as the Punisher on the cover (and, appropriately enough, a variant cover). You can check out both covers over the magazine’s website. In addition, the magazine will feature a Punisher/Eminem comic called Kill You that starts in print and continues on the Marvel.com website starting May 5.
(Via The Beat)
- April 15, 2009 @ 05:09 AM by JK Parkin
Straight for the art | File this under ‘awesome’
by Ulises Farinas
Dean Haspiel sent around this link today to something so mind-blowingly cool that I can only share a sliver of it here. One commenter asks artist Ulises Farinas, “Did you enter the dreams of all 16 year old boys in 1998 and retain what you saw there to bring us this glorious masterpiece?!”
Update: Now you can see it in color.
- April 14, 2009 @ 07:43 PM by JK Parkin
Happy anniversary, you old bat
Grumpy Old Fan
According to Mike’s Amazing World Of DC Comics, this Saturday marks 70 years since the publication of the first Batman story. “The Case of the Chemical Syndicate,” by Bill Finger and Bob Kane, appeared in Detective Comics #27, cover-dated May 1939.
Of course, it all went downhill from there….
- April 14, 2009 @ 03:29 PM by Tom Bondurant
Will the leak end up helping Wolverine?
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Executives at 20th Century Fox may be able to breathe a sigh of relief: It looks like that leaked copy of X-Men Origins: Wolverine actually could help the movie.
Entertainment Weekly‘s Hollywood Insider reports the Hugh Jackman film is tracking strong, with consumer-research statistics showing a high “wanna see” rating. What’s more, it’s the No. 1 choice in two key demographics: young men, and men age 31 and older.
As Vulture’s Lane Brown points out, the leaked work print, with its unfinished special-effects shots, should have signaled doom for Wolverine. So why didn’t it?
“Had it not leaked, this is the time when people on the Internet (including us, no doubt) would’ve been wildly speculating on the film’s quality based on its trailer, publicity campaign, promotional pizza tie-in, and reported reshoots,” Brown writes. “Instead, though, the very bloggers who’d probably be writing this thing off are refusing to post reviews of an unfinished product and shaming downloaders.”
That’s actually … a pretty good theory.
- April 14, 2009 @ 11:32 AM by Kevin Melrose
Robot reviews: Funny, Misshapen Body and Sulk
Funny, Misshapen Body
Funny Misshapen Body
by Jeffrey Brown
Touchstone Books, 320 pages. $16
Sulk Vol. 1 & 2
by Jeffrey Brown
Top Shelf Productions, $7 each.
Jeffrey’s Brown’s latest memoir, Funny Misshapen Body, is a departure from his past autobiographical work. It’s a lot more straightforward, for one thing, even though it’s divided into a series of short vignettes and goes back and forth in time. A large part of that is due to the fact that he employs a first-person narration throughout the book that he’s avoided up till now. Perhaps that’s why this is one of his most assured and confident works to date. As much as I enjoyed Little Things, his last book for Touchstone, I think Body is a stronger work, perhaps because it’s more direct.
- April 14, 2009 @ 10:29 AM by Chris Mautner
Gahan Wilson animates Gaiman story
New Yorker cartoonist Gahan Wilson has animated Neil Gaiman’s short story “It Was a Dark and Silly Night,” which you can check out at The New York Times or right here:
- April 14, 2009 @ 10:08 AM by JK Parkin
Everyone’s A Critic: A roundup of comic-related reviews and thinkpieces
Earth X
• Having offered what may become the definitive critical take on Kingdom Come, Tim O’Neil looks at Alex Ross’ follow-up project, Earth X:
So, if Kingdom Come is about the reassertion of classically Juedo-Christian concepts of morality as filtered through fifty-and-sixty-year-old superhero comics, what’s the take-away for Earth X? Essentially, the story is about what happens when the superheroes begin to realize just how much their lives have been influenced by the interference of amoral space gods – down to the very ideas of morality and ethicality.
• I don’t mean to keep linking to The Hooded Utilitarian, but they have a new contributor, “Kinukitty,” who will be doing a regular column on yaoi and BL-themed manga. She kicks things off with a look at Aya Kanno’s Blank Slate:
The boy on the cover is pretty. So pretty. All the major characters are pretty. Cool, angsty-looking pretty boys with big guns. Did I mention that they’re pretty? They really are. I’m not sure who’s who all the time. I’m not always sure what’s happening. Don’t misunderstand – we’re not talking about confusion that rips space and time. We’re talking about a series of brow-furrowing, minor WTF moments that end with a quiet snort of “Oh, I don’t care anyway.”
• While you’re there I also recommend checking out Tom Crippen’s essay on Rorschach.
• Speaking of manga, David Welsh examines Mari Okazaki’s Suppli at the Comics Reporter. Also at CR, Bart Beaty praises New Wanted by Laurent Cilluffo.
• Rob Clough looks at the work of emerging artist Juliacks: “It can be a bit daunting to engage these sorts of comics; they demand that you accept them on their own terms or not at all. They can be difficult to begin and adjust to as a reader. Of course, once a reader has locked into this style, the stories become impossible to put down.”
- April 14, 2009 @ 09:00 AM by Chris Mautner
By the Hoary Hosts of Hoggoth! It’s Eye of Agamotto papercraft!
Eye of Agamotto
Sean Kleefeld points to Tektonten Papercraft’s downloadable template for the Eye of Agamotto, one of Doctor Strange’s mystical artifacts. I’m not sure what you actually do with it — the paper model, not the fictional amulet — but I imagine its assembly will keep more than a few fans of the Sorcerer Supreme busy for a while.
- April 14, 2009 @ 08:36 AM by Kevin Melrose
This weekend, it’s SPACE in Ohio
SPACE
This coming weekend the Small Press & Alternative Comics Expo, or SPACE, blasts off at the Aladdin Shrine Complex in Columbus, Ohio. Admission is $5 a day or $8 for both Saturday and Sunday.
About 150 indie creators will be on hand to sell their comics and original art, including Eisner nominee Nate Powell (Swallow Me Whole), Ryan Claytor (And Then One Day), Jay Hosler (Optical Allusions) and Matt Feazell (Cynicalman). On Saturday, Carol Tyler (Late Bloomer, Weirdo) will display some of her work from her upcoming book You’ll Never Know Book One: A Good and Decent Man. The Ohio State University Cartoon Library and Museum will host a reception on Friday night to kick off the weekend and will feature original artwork from Bill Watterson, Jeff Smith and P. Craig Russell.
For more information on panels and other events related to th show, check out the official SPACE blog.
- April 14, 2009 @ 08:06 AM by JK Parkin